Giant nails to be used to prevent landslides

Alabama transportation officials hope they have the answer to preventing landslides on Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne: Giant nails.

The state Department of Transportation has hired Soil Nail Launcher Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo., to shoot long, nail-like tubes into slumping soil inside the Fort Payne city limits.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports (http://bit.ly/11wG9JD) that the company repairs landslides around the country, including in Tennessee.

Officials say the work will cost a little less than $3 million.

Johnny Harris, the state agency's division engineer for nine northeastern counties, says that amount is three to five times less expensive than going the standard route of building a rock buttress below a soft spot and using rock fill above the buttress to stabilize the slope.